Printhead-To-Media Spacing Adjustment Apparatus And Method

Abstract

An apparatus for adjusting the printhead-to-media spacing in an inkjet printer is disclosed. The apparatus includes a carriage rod that is fixed in position relative to a media support and a carriage for supporting at least one printhead. The carriage has a contact surface that abuts the carriage rod to allow the carriage to be supported thereon and moveable laterally along the length of the carriage rod. The apparatus further includes an actuating means that moves the carriage relative to the carriage rod along an axis transverse to a longitudinal axis of the carriage rod. During the movement, the contact surface of the carriage remains in abutment with the carriage rod to thereby allow the carriage to continue to be supported on the carriage rod. A method of printhead-to-media spacing adjustment, implementable using the apparatus, is also disclosed.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 11 / 016,301, filed Dec. 16, 2004, hereby incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND [0002] This invention relates generally to a printer, and in particular to an apparatus and a method in an inkjet printer for adjusting the printhead-to-media spacing to accommodate different thicknesses of print media. [0003] In a typical printer, such as an inkjet printer, the default printhead-to-media spacing is typically set to accommodate a commonly used, single-sheet-thickness, bond-weight paper, such as 20-lb. bond-weight paper. Envelopes and other print media are usually substantially thicker than a single sheet of such paper, and because of this, it is desirable to enable printhead-to-media spacing to be adjusted, either via user selection, or via automatic media thickness sensing, or both, so as to accommodate such thicker media. [0004] To accomplish this kind of adjustment in the past, various ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printhead-to-media spacing adjustment apparatus in a printer that includes a carriage rod fixed in position relative to a media support and a carriage for supporting at least one printhead. The carriage has a contact surface that abuts the carriage rod to allow the carriage to be supported thereon and moveable laterally along the length of the carriage rod. The apparatus further includes an actuating means that moves the carriage relative to the carriage rod along an axis transverse to a longitudinal axis of the carriage rod with the contact surface remaining in abutment with the carriage rod to thereby move the carriage relative to the media support so as to adjust the printhead-to-media spacing.

Problems solved by technology

However, with printheads of larger swaths, such as a one-inch or wider swath, this difference in orifice-and-media spacing for proximal and distal orifices on a printhead may become significant and therefore may no longer be ignored if uniform print quality is to be maintained across all the orifices.

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